Theresa Nemetz, aka Mrs. Morton Salt, is the owner of Milwaukee Food Tours. Her husband is dressed as Mr. Facebook. People who take part in the "Ghosts and Spirits Tour" are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes.

Salud! Spooks and drinks on holiday BOO!ze tour

At Shaker’s Cigar Bar, participants in the Ghosts and Spirits Tour can sip pumpkin martinis.

THERESA NEMETZ

Theresa Nemetz, aka Mrs. Morton Salt, is the owner of Milwaukee Food Tours. People who take part in the "Ghosts and Spirits Tour" are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes.

Submitted photo

Theresa Nemetz, aka Mrs. Morton Salt, is the owner of Milwaukee Food Tours. Her husband is dressed as Mr. Facebook. People who take part in the "Ghosts and Spirits Tour" are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes.

Submitted photo

People who take part in the "Ghosts and Spirits Tour" are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes.

A new Milwaukee food tour caters to those who delight in spirits
— both the sippable and the haunted kinds.

Stopping at multiple restaurants and bars for delectable treats
and spooky tales, the “Ghosts and Spirits Tour” is a three-hour bus
ride through the Third Ward, the Brady Street area and the Fifth
Ward in Milwaukee.

“The thing that ties each of them together is we’re visiting
restaurants with haunted locations,” said Theresa Nemetz, owner of
Milwaukee Food Tours, which also offers walking tours of different
neighborhoods in the city, focusing on the various ethnic cuisines
of the area.

For the ghoulish tour, cuisine- and drink-wise, everything from
a celebrity’s “last meal” to traditional Halloween delicacies will
be available. Participants are encouraged to wear costumes for the
tour, which features a diverse selection of heavy appetizers and
cocktails for adult trick-or-treaters. Spots are available for
Friday, Oct. 22, and Oct. 29 and 30; the Saturday, Oct. 23, tour is
sold out. Tickets cost $70 per person.

Stops at four locations are planned for the event. At Shaker’s
Cigar Bar and Restaurant in the Fifth Ward, foodies will enjoy
Julia Child’s last meal — French onion soup, natch — with pumpkin
martinis.

The restaurant is rumored to be haunted by a little girl named
Elizabeth who fell out of a tree when she was a child, Nemetz said.
In the women’s restroom at Shaker’s, people have reported seeing a
pair of little feet appear in the adjoining stalls; in the
restaurant’s basement, employees have experienced unusual changes
in temperature.

Partygoers will also stop at an Irish pub in the Third Ward for
a traditional Irish Halloween drink called Lamb’s Wool, a seasonal
mix of apple cider and beer.

And in the Brady Street area, two stops are planned: one at a
Mexican restaurant to learn about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the
Dead) and another at Trocadero, where Bloody Marys, among other
treats, will be served.

During a previous tour visit to the allegedly haunted Trocadero,
spirits seemed to make their presence known.

“We were there last weekend and we were telling everyone the
stories,” Nemetz said. “All of a sudden one of the (beer) taps fell
off completely randomly.

“Everyone jumped and started screaming.”

None of the spooks are faked or planned, she said: “We’ve told
the restaurants specifically, ‘Don’t do anything goofy.’”

This is the first year Milwaukee Food Tours has offered a
Halloween tour, and interest in the tours has been very positive,
she said.

So much so that other food and holiday tours are in the
works.

“We’ve had such a big success with this one, we’re going to do a
Christmas bakery tour.”